Important Notice

Sorry, this is still in maintenance!

Hi and welcome to my blog!

If you are a first-time visitor, or looking for the posts I consider most important ('cause I'm posting a lot), please go here or click "About Me" at the top of the page!
Otherwise just have fun!


Donnerstag, 31. Januar 2013

Semester Two

I honestly can't believe that Semester two starts tomorrow already ... and that Dorothea is flying home. It just seems so surreal...

I still need to clean out my binder, get rid of all the old papers...

I'm glad to be back 'home' here :D
But the parcel I was talking about? It's not the one I was waiting for. It's not for me at all.
But then again, small parcels usually take longer than big ones, for some reason. And it might be caught in customs...

So, here have a gemstone from the LA Kings twitter:

The "box" they're talking about is a glass cage also know as the penalty box where a player has to spend two minutes if he violates the rules :D


And the Oilers just lost to the San Jose Sharks in a Shootout -_- That means the Sharks are league leaders now - I'm now just hoping for a Hawks win tomorrow and a Sharks loss in regulation in the next game - then the Hawks are league leaders again! (But it's not as though that really matters - as long as the Hawks stay on top of their conference, it's the Stanley Cup final when they have to concern themselves with the Sharks - if ever ... so I'm crossing my fingers. They'll manage, I hope!)
I had a most ugly experience on tumblr today:
People tag their hate against other teams, so I was looking at the Blackhawks tag and it was really ugly. The stuff some of the 'fans' are sprouting there is beyond nice and fair. Things like "I would crash this player's flight" are a no-go, seriously, especially after the plane of a Russian team crashed and most of the players (or even all of them?) died. Marián Hossa, Hawks forward, for example wears a 37 sown onto his glove to honor his friend who died.
So I was kindly (and I was really nice) asking a few of them to remove their hate or at least not tag it anymore, and see the response I got:

Yep, isn't that a lovely reply? (The 'I know it's a bit late' is in regards to the game in question having been played yesterday)
But what was I expecting with that url?
Another guy replied something along the lines of "Don't take yourself too seriously it was only a loss you're not that important", totally missing my point (I sent exactly the same message).

From now on I'm staying away from the team tags, because it's really ugly what's going on in there. Another girl, however, replied with
Thanks I appreciate the sweet way of asking: )
Had anyone else come at me this way I would have had no problem..
It’s not that I hate the hawks.. it’s that they are my teams biggest rival ever… so you know.. it causes so much emotion…
I can’t promise I won’t tag anything but I’ll try… might get heated tomorrow night but we will see!!
Good luck to your team.. although they don’t really need any luck! Haha

And I've been messaging back and forth with her.
And one more girl was complaining about "Bandwagon fans", so fans who only came to the sport after the Hawks won the Cup, so I asked her what those fans were, and we had a nice conversation (she's the first American born in a family from Bavaria :D)

So it wasn't all bad.

Good night!

Bio

Yep, so today - or technically, yesterday, I wrote my Biology test, running on about 5 hours of sleep.
I know I said I would go to bed early, and I honestly did, but I just couldn't fall asleep.

Bio took me - including walking to and from the school - 35 mintues.
And for that I woke up at 7:35. Wow.

I don't know how it went, I was a bit unsure about some of the questions, but I answered everything to the best of my abilities - and there was only multiple choice, no short answer questions :D
Now I'm truly done with Semester 1!

Other than that, I lost horribly in Scrabble (I honestly don't like that game, neither in German nor in English) and then watched the Blackhawks lose in a shootout.
But at least Captain Toews scored :)
And they're still undefeated in regulation! I'm just crossing my fingers that the Sharks will lose their next game :) I'm not even sorry, I don't like them.

And then I got somehow roped into writing something again... I was just idly browsing tumblr, when suddenly WHAM!! inspiration struck. And I have already 1,700 words, and I hope I can finish that tomorrow :D

Love y'all,

Julia

Dienstag, 29. Januar 2013

Sleepy post

I'm really tired today...
I've already been lying in bed since 6 o'clock, but then I remembered that I hadn't posted anything yet, so I stood back up...

Okay, my day:
I woke up pretty late, had Cheerios (best stuff ever), checked twitter, tumblr and facebook and then took a look at Biology, but I'm gonna read over it once again now. I think I have everything down pretty well, but it can't hurt and I'm not sure anyway.
After that... I had a small lunch, before reading over my Biology notes again - have I mentioned that I've never learned how to learn? I still just read stuff over, although I think it might be helpful to note down all the important stuff and try to condense the stuff you're actually memorizing.
Which I obviously didn't do. But it's not as though much hinges on this grade...
After that, I finally looked up Khanacademy.org, which is an absolutely fantastic site - I've been doing the Math stuff, and while it was just review, it's really good.

So if you have questions or just want to go over stuff, check it out. It's also available in German, from what I've seen, but I haven't tried it out.
https://de.khanacademy.org/
Here it is, the German part. It's totally free, and really good!

Yep, and then there was dinner and I went to bed...

And it seems like Andy and I will attend another Kelowna Rockets game on Saturday, and maybe on Thursday, too - they come back very late tomorrow night, so that would work out.
The only problem?
Saturday there's a Blackhawks game...
But I'm choosing the Rockets!

And here is a bit of trivia:
http://nicolasechs.tumblr.com/post/41831667599/hermahoganysoul-someday-itwillbeokay
It's something really amazing in Montreal, check it out!

And my parcel has arrived, but I'm gonna pick it up on Thursday, when my host family is back...
So, and I'm going to bed now, good night!

Montag, 28. Januar 2013

Keyed up

I'm all weirdly keyed up - hungry but too full from dinner still, tired but my mind is running too fast, bored and not wanting to do anything.

I hate days like this. Or evenings like this.
The day wasn't even so bad, actually...

But first, I wanted to say thank you to everybody reading this blog. You guys "killed" the 4000 yesterday - now there have been more than 4000 clicks in January.
Thank you so much, this is a new record!
(The last 'high-score' was November with 3,689 clicks.)

And I would like you to know: We have reached exactly half-time. Not until I'm coming home, that isn't until another week, but until school is out. School officially ends on 06/28, and that's exactly 150 days from today.
And school officially started 09/01, which is exactly 150 days from today.

Actually, my half-time was already a few days ago, because school didn't start until the 09/04 because of a holiday (labour day) and will end already on 06/27, because the de-facto last day is only for teachers and administrators.
But who cares?

So, back to my day:
I was at Dorothea's from 9.30 to 4.30, might have converted her to hockey, just as I converted her to Sherlock (muahahah), had yummi roast pork for dinner and a pretty relaxed evening...
And then the Rockets lost against Kamloops in overtime, and the Canucks lost, too. Not that I am a Canucks fan or anything, but Vancouver? I am geographically forced to root for them over the L.A. Kings.
Although the Canucks have a longstanding rivalry with the Blackhawks... And the Kings have two players I think are pretty cool...

I also watched like two minutes of the Cariolina Hurricanes - Boston Bruins game, and what can I say? It was really disappointing. I like hockey, as I have mentioned, because of the speed, grace and fluidity. And none of this was present in that game.
Passes didn't connect en masse, there were unnecessary turn-overs, then Eric Staal, the Captain, took an unnecessary penalty, the Bruins scored and Jeff-always-smiling-Skinner engaged an opposing player in a fight. Nobody knows why, but he seemed pretty enraged. Since there were 7 seconds left in the period, they were both sent from the ice...

I'm so looking forward to the next Hawks game, although it's probably gonna kill me. I'm expecting it to be very enthralling, because I really want them to do well.

And I'm not just rooting for them because they're so good at the moment. No, I was a fan even before this lockout started, and they had two not-so-stellar seasons after winning the Stanley Cup. So. Duh.

Have a good night!

Sonntag, 27. Januar 2013

Cooking Endeavour

Yep, I finally did my cooking!
Unfortunately, my host family wasn't there (they're still in Mexico), so I'll probably have to do it again.

I made "Schinkennudeln", or Pasta with ham.

This is what my workspace looked like:
Onion and ham. And a laptop...
Yes, my cooking of course coincided with the sixth Blackhawks game this season. And I  have now been forbidden to ever again stir noodles while a Hawks game is on - they were up 1-0, really strong in the first period, dominated the game, and then in the second managed to get 4 (!) penalties of 2 minutes, resulting in one 5-on-3 (or two-man advantage) for the Red Wings, but they managed to kill their penalties (it was beautiful). They killed those penalties, only to allow a goal early in the third right while I was turned away to stir my stupid nudles. And since both hockey players and fans are really superstitious, I'm not allowed to do that again. Clearly bad luck.

But the Hawks managed to keep the game tied and won it in overtime. So they're now off to the best start in Franchise History - no Blackhawks team before them has managed this. They're the league leaders, too, but the San Jose Sharks have only played 5 games (as opposed to the Hawks six) and are undefeated so far ... well, they're playing each other next week, I think.

And on Friday the Hawks play the Vancouver Canucks - a long standing rivalry aftera play-off series, if I'm not mistaken. It's surely gonna be fun to watch. It's on National Television, so no rewinds :/ But I get to watch it on the big TV!

Oh, and here is my finished meal (It actually did taste like home, so much better than the Obatzder which I tried to make...)

And tomorrow I'm off to Dorothea's! From 9.30 to some point in the afternoon/evening :D
She's got five days left. That's so unbelievable... and tomorrow I will have reached exact;y half time until school ends. That's also really weird. A weird thought.


I went to bad really early - in the morning. I had meant to go to bed at around midnight (because, no classes, hello? I'm not going to bed too early!), but somehow it ended up being three o'clock!
And of course I woke up at around eight. Luckily, I've become pretty adept (hah, I like that word... wanted to use it for ages) at going back to sleep, but I gave up at around half past nine or so...
For Breakfast/Brunch/Lunch (I skipped breakfast, ok? I went straight to lunch at around ... one o'clock?) there was cheese melt. For me one and a half tuna and cheese melt and one ham and cheese melt. I think I liked the ham one better.

And I have really weird capitalization... I always capitalize (or want to, at least) Hockey and Hockey Player, and I also capitalized Ham. For no good reason.
Am I finally missing German with all it's nouns capitalized?
But with German and English in lower case letters? Das ist sehr deutsch. Das ist ein englisches Wort. (That is very German. That is an English word)

I have written another two letters (not telling to whom), one in German and one in English... would you like to know who the recipients are? Well, I'm not telling! Haha!

I just remembered that I still owe you a recap of my classes... Let's see when I can get around to that...

So, have a great night (or day, depending on where you are/when you are reading this)

Julia

Caaaareful, It's another Hockey Post

Okay, here we are with another Hockey Post - there were questions, okay? :)

But you can skip it and you won't really miss anything important, because there will be another post later today about my day (although it's bound to be uneventful)

Samstag, 26. Januar 2013

Lazy Day

Once again!
Well, I have written two letters and a mail today, and I hope I will be able to write two more or so tomorrow.
I'm sorry to everybody I still owe something written!

What else? I watched the Blackhawks game (5-0-0 [Wins-Losses-Overtime losses], now tied with 71-72 for best season start in franchise history!) and it was really... close.
And then during the first intermission I started watching the Flyers (they scored more goals in this game than in all their first four games combined - seven to five! Tonight they won 7-1!) so I was lagging about 20 minutes behind the Hakws game, but that was probably better for my nerves. But just as I decided to switch to live viewing again, the Captain scored what would later be the game winning goal!

And that was pretty much my day. The Oilers (Edmonton) are on right now, but they're losing pretty spectacularly against the Flames (Calgary):/
I'll finish my Flyers (Philadelphia) game now...

Freitag, 25. Januar 2013

You Have Reached The End Of Semester One

Yep. That's it. Today was the last day of Semester One. Kinda officially.
So all that remains is that stupid re-test on Wednesday, and if I knew my final exam score right now, I would cancel it. But I don't so I won't. Not that it's gonna make any real difference... in my final mark it had an impact of somewhere along the lines of .35% or so... Why again did I believe that I had to make it up?

So, today was Japanese, and it was 20% and not 10% as he had initially told me - but I managed at the very least 50%, rather more, and I'm not complaining. I have my A for sure there.
And English... was fun. I wrote so much that my thumb started hurting where it joins my hand, but all in all it was pretty good - I wrote the same thing for my composition as for the practice exam. Not exactly the same, because no matter how much I pride myself on my good memory where it concerns spoken/written words, I can't memorize 1,150 and I didn't even try. But I think I got the gist and only changed the ending - it now simply says something like "It has changed the way I think, and if this is all that I take away from this journey [I should have written endeavour, that would have been a better word] then I am well satisfied with my achievements." Which is true. Because I think that realizing how I think and how my mind works will do me a huge favour in the future.

Mr Derksen said he's looking forward to having me in his class next semester... I think he even might have been genuine. No, he's really an awesome teacher!

And yeah... There is one fricking huge mistake I made in English: I re-wrote the first text production and forgot to cross out the first draft!
I meant to cross it out, but my mind was swirling all throughout writing and so I forgot -_- All the nice quiet of yesterday's Biology exam was gone :/
Well, can't change it now...

And it's not as though it actually matters for me...

That's it. I have decided that you will get the thoughts transcript from yesterday only if you actually know me and I can give it to you in person. Nothing against those I know only via web, but I honestly don't wanna type that stuff up...

And now I'm going back to watching Oil Change. No, it's not about cars, it's a documentary about the Edmonton Oilers that is really, really interesting :)
And I wanted to re-watch yesterday's Blackhawks game, because the Blackhawks commentators are soooooo much better than the Dallas ones!

Have all the love,

Julia

P.S.: NO SCHOOL TILL FRIDAY!!!!! (Except for the exam, but who cares?!)

P.P.S: And to anyone (silently) complaining about me being obsessed with things:
There is an article. Because Sidney Crosby "Wanted to feel a real winter again" and chose to walk in the cold. And that warranted a whole ARTICLE! Seriously, check it out. It's the Globe and Mail. (Crosby is considered the best player of the league [not by me] and the face of the NHL. And he is ridiculously good, although prone to injury)

Donnerstag, 24. Januar 2013

Finals Day I

Okay, just a short post because I slept 5 hours and am really tired:
Finals went alright I guess. Once it started, I was feeling pretty relaxed, and Spanish went better than expected. I'm not so sure about Biology though... I have a thought-log about the two exams which I will type up tomorrow, just if maybe anybody's interested in what such a day looks like.

And of course I forgot the Biology notes we were supposed to hand in today. Or rather, I grabbed the wrong stack of notes...

I also didn't do anymore Japanese. I don't really care about it, and I will get an A no matter how my exam turns out, so duh.

Well, that's it.
Have a great day!

Mittwoch, 23. Januar 2013

A person’s view of the world may change over time

Especially over the last four months I have become increasingly aware that my view of the world isn’t set in stone, no matter how it might feel at any given moment.

I’m not ignorant. I’m well aware that there is a world outside of my thoughts, my expectation, my comfort zone. It’s just that sometimes, this awareness is at the back of my mind. When I start out into new territory, my view of the world is narrow-minded, focused inwards. I don’t consciously avoid thinking about other possibilities, they just don’t occur to me.

It's the Final Countdown

Yep, today was the last day of school (real school at least).
We did... a bit of review via Jeopardy in Japanese (although he only called it Jeopardy. Jeopardy actually is you have the answer and have to come up with the question, we had the question and had to find the answer/translate), then finished the review booklet in Spanish (wasn't so bad, but I'm gonna take another look at the foods and the subjects again...) and then there was lunch ... Mr Derksen actually wanted to go over my essays with me because of the flow, but he had another appointment, and at the end of lunch we talked about writing in general - he said my composition (6/6 and an awesome) was really great to read and was a "counseling session" :) but according to him it was really good - I have one metaphor that I used throughout the whole essay, and Doro was another "Leitfaden" ... and it wasn't even intentional! Just as the sentence "But sometimes, this awareness is at the back of my mind", which is a paradox he really liked, wasn't planned. I hadn't even noticed that!

After that we had regular English, and I went and talked to the counselor and switched Psychology 11 to Spanish 11 - the Psychology teacher sounded very much like my English teacher in 7th grade, and while he was an awesome man, he was a bad teacher. And I don't wanna do that, if I can do more with Spanish!
Even though I'm not sure the Spanish teacher is much better - I went to tell her that she wouldn't need to tutor me off the time table as she had said she would do, only to have her tell me that she wouldn't have been able to  that anyway. Why would she offer that in the first place then? It didn't just (kinda) piss me off and make me insecure (I always take that pretty personal, even though I know that she doesn't mind me personally, that it's not directed against me, but knowing and really being aware of something are two different things), but it also ruined my day...

In Biology, I was all alone - both Spencer and Krystin were gone, so I sat next to Spencer's friends in the row before us. And I'm so jealous of the guy I was sitting next to. He gets to see the Blackhawks in Anaheim in March!
WANT!!!
He said the price for tickets down there were only $150 for Premium Seats - in Vancouver you get really shitty seats if you're lucky for $300 to $400, and in Winnipeg? Good luck trying to get seats at all. They have a 4000 people wait list for season tickets in Winnipeg, and most of the arenas all around are sold out at the moment!

(Btw, our school news paper came out today. Here it is! I have two articles in it... although one of them is messed up: the left and the right side, or the first and the second half are switched! -_- and nobody caught it :/)

What else was today? Nothing much ... I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch (best thing ever) and caught glimpses of the Vancouver - Calgary game (Vancouver won!).

And I'm deceptively calm... I've been swinging between near freak-out/panic and utter calm all day ... and right now I'm feeling "screw it, it won't get better", so I'm like "let's just see how it turns out tomorrow."
The only thing I have to remember is read everything carefully and make sure you know what the question is asking.
Yeah, that's it.
Spanish and Biology tomorrow, so I'm signing off right now!

Have a lot of love,

Julia

EDIT: I'm actually sitting here crying because they mentioned Lukas Podolski on TV in a soccer game, and it's just like OMG that does still exist - soccer is pretty ... invisible here, but they're doing a recap of this day (at 12.13 a.m.) and it's always these little things that catch me...

Dienstag, 22. Januar 2013

Chelsea, Chelsea, I believe

No, don't fear, it's not another hockey post...

Okay, my school day: I almost overslept. I had woken up, switched off my alarm (I only vaguely remember that) and fallen back asleep. Luckily, my inner clock woke me about five or ten minutes later.
I had a rather weird dream anyway, but I can't remember it now...

So, I made my lunch and went to school, and almost went to Japanese - before I remembered that we had Japanese first perios yesterday, so it was Spanish's turn today ;)
We finished the movie we'd been watching - some Mexican drama about illegal immigrants, and it wasn't even so bad, but I'd missed a significant chunk yesterday, so duh. Once that was done, we started on our review booklet. I think I got the farthest, but we'll complete it tomorrow.
Then Japanese, as mentioned we finished Kamikaze girls and wrote our test, and honestly? I don't really care about that grade anymore. I'm tired of Japanese, I should have listened to myself and changed it at the beginning of the year. It was just a waste of time (Yes, you will get reflections on my courses and my choices once they're over and done with and I got my report card... maybe even already before that!)
Biology: I mentioned the test, didn't I?
Well, aside from that I was writing up my notes on the Male and Female Reproductive Systems which we have to hand in by the end of the week, and I'm taking my re-test Wednesday morning. 9 o'clock. Yay. But at least it's a fairly short quiz, so it shouldn't take me too long.

English... as always my favourite period of the day. (Although Spanish is a close runner up). Some people were rewriting a practice exam where they had failed the multiple choice (I got 20/23, which was alright) and so the rest of us had free working time.
I started out reading, but decided to finish my Biology notes. Interspersed with reading, of course. Since I had complained to Mr Derksen that we didn't do any silent reading anymore because of preparation, so when I was leaving the room, he was like "See, you were complaining about not getting time to read; today you had the whole period!"
So I laughed and said "Yeah, but I had to do Biology..."
And since he's such an awesome listener, I told him about the shock from Biology, and he just looked at me. "I'm surprised he didn't notice himself. If that happened in my class, I would notice, especially when it's a student with your marks. I usually scale my tests by your score." My first though? God, no, I don't want others to get a bad grade just because I have a fairly easy time learning! But what he was talking about was:
"When you have a bad grade, I know there's something wrong with my test." So, yeah :)
I had to go, because I thought the Hawks game started at 4.30 (it was 5.30), and I had to go to the mall for top-up for my phone, so I just said 'bye'.
And he? He said "Goodbye, darling."
Teachers here are so amazing, and so nice, and actually try to interact with their students. Like, he does it all the time. And he doesn't just listen because you talk, he listens because he wants to hear you. There's a difference, and I think that that's one reason why he has the class under control so well. (He never has to raise his voice, but he also doesn't require absolute silence. It's so relaxed in the classrooms here...)

So, anyway, Gordo and I went to the mall and the store, I got a cinnamon bun (there is little better than a warm cinnamon bun with the icing still running), and when we came back, I realized that I had hurried all for nothing.
But I had to wolf my dinner down, because I wanted to see the puck drop - it was the Blackhawks Home Opener, and they didn't disappoint. It was a fast-paced, amazing game, keeping me at the edge of my seat, and just over all so great... The Hawks won, of course. (or not so of course, but their goalie was really good. He'd been pretty inconsistent last season, but so far he's been amazing, making some incredible saves.) In the end, it was 3-2 - tight, but really good.

And since it's been some time since I last had pictures/gifs, have some!

Flyers vs Peguins - Brayden Schenn misses Sidney Crosby (x)


Patrick Kane (88) scores the first goal of the night - with an assist from Patrick Sharp (10) (x). It was a beauty shot. Seriously. Their goal celebration was ... pretty great, too:
Kaner flying through the air (x)

 Aaand:
Hockey Players :D (x)

The Blackhawks twitter loved their fans today, giving them this gem, too:

(x) Yay. The guy talking is Duncan Keith, part of the co-dependent defense pairing
Keith-Seabrook. (eg living in the same neighbourhood, having vacation houses
next to each other, having each other's teeth, always being on the ice together)
Keith had the puck from Toews, shot and Seabs's skate redirected the puck into the net.
Seriously.
Aaaaand... that's it from me. Now I spent one hour more on here than I meant to... hui. Sorry!

Shock

Once more an update out of Biology...
I just hit up JupiterGrades, the online grading system, because Mr Kruger had out up the my grade for the Nervous system test, and I got a shock. 48.5/60 ... that's pretty bad. So I went up to him and looked at my test ... 48.5/54... which is something entirely different. I asked him - and he had just entered the wrong total (the original test had been 60 points, my re-test was six points less). So I have 90% on that, which means I'm re-taking the excretory system one.
The funny thing?  I have zero mistakes in the first 49 questions, and the last five (which were all about the neuro-endocrine system) wrong. But I'm really not complaining, because I totally missed that part of the notes *wry grin*.

So, and now I'm going back to studying - The Blackhakws are playing tonight (this afternoon) at 4.30, and I need to go to the mall to get top up for my phone...

And by the way, Spanish went really well. The review booklet we were doing today was pretty good - I only have to take another look at the time...

Montag, 21. Januar 2013

Eeeeeeendspurt!

Yay, finally, the final sprint! Two days left, and hen END OF SEMESTER ONE! (Okay, first of course finals, but ... hey :) )

Since I don't have anything better to tell you, have a (horribly detailed) run-down of my day:

So, I went to bed yesterday early for me at half past eleven, but since it was really warm in my room I had to air it for half an hour before I could sleep, which resulted in me being a) tired and b) cold in the morning (but at least I could fall asleep).
I woke at 7:35 a.m. because I hadn't yet made my lunch, lay in bed for five more minutes, got dressed and headed into the kitchen. I fixed up my cereal (Honey Nut Cheerios!), had a glass of milk and made my lunch, a simple chicken wrap (chicken from yesterday's dinner + salad & mayonnaise), which I then packed into my backpack.
I left the house at 8:40 a.m. and walked my eight minutes to school, which of course made me a bit early (but only by a tad more than 5 minutes), went to my Japanese class room, took off my shoes (we have to do that; it's a Japanese custom), unstacked the chairs into a half circle and talked to the teacher for a moment (on my test the teaching assistant had subtracted a whole point instead of half a point >.< ... no, joking, but I doubt I'm gonna do so well on the final, so I need to get my grade up now!) and then the other students started trickeling in. Especially in Japanese we always have late-runners, so we always wait a bit longer than usual.
We repeated the verbs we'd learned, learned a few new ones and reviewed how to say whether we liked things (or didn't like them). And then we grabbed clipboards and scrap-paper and 'interviewed' our classmates about their like and dislikes. I can now say I like something and write it in Kanji!
:)
We finished "Kamikaze Girls", the movie we'd been watching, and Sensei totally forgot about the exam we were supposed to write :) So we're writing it tomorrow... And I still owe him one more quiz - I guess I have to take it either Wednesday or Thursday after school (Wednesday lunch Mr Derksen and I will go over my essay, because my flow was so bad in the one I handed in - compared to my usual ones, not the rest of class (: ).
After Japanese I had Spanish (Block Order 21-43), so I went and looked over the vocab we had to learn. The test wasn't hard, and I begged off after completing it, so I don't really know how it'll turn out - and I'm cautious about predicting, because there were a few instances where I wasn't sure what to chose ... But I begged off and went to Journalism to finish my Editor's note on the Lockout article I'd written.

Since that didn't take as long as I'd expected and I had all my stuff with me, I just hung out with them (the Journalism inside-the-timetable-students were working) and read until the bell rang. Then I only shifted my reading to Mr D's room and had my lunch there.
Lolu came by (once again) and we chatted for a bit, and then Mr D and I also talked for a bit, but mostly I was reading (and trying to convince myself to learn Biology. I didn't succeed). Class started and what did we do? A spell check.

It was 25 words - we handed them in, so I don't remember all of them, but here are those I do remember (I didn't try to memorize them or anything)

broccoli, raspberry, liquefy, putrefy, separate, acquaintance, disappear, chauvinism, ukulele, seize, deceive, peninsula, commemorate, criticize, ... and I can't think of any more words. But hey, 14/25 isn't so bad :)
But anyway, I only had three mistakes - tying with three other students as best of the class. Me, as in the exchange student!

Then we went on to review the terminology we've learned this past semester and worked on worksheets about it...
And then there was Biology. We only had study time, with the laptops, and I finally started to study. Because IT'S ONLY TWO MORE DAYS UNTIL I HAVE TO WRITE THIS FINAL!!!
And I really want to prove myself. Especially since I can't pretend I don't understand enough English to do so. Failure in the exam would be failure on my part alone. And I can't have that.

I went to see Mr Kletke after Biology, because on the handout for the SF trip was a date, but no time for the parent teacher meeting. Duh. I got the time, and went home. Pretty unhurriedly, but it's not as though I had anything to do :)
And then... I read a bit, chatted a bit with Doro, and caught some snippets from "The Biggest Loser", "Dragons' Den" (you have to convince the jury to become your business partner), "The Bachelor" and the news in between studying. And yes, those programs are exactly the same as in Germany.

And now I'm slowly headed for bed...
If anybody want to see the monstrosity I have in wait for me in Biology, click this link. It's an old provincial exam.

Sonntag, 20. Januar 2013

Learning?

Okay, I've been procrastinating again, if I'm being honest... :)

Well, but it wasn't all bad - even though I woke up for the first time at eight o'clock, I managed to sleep till half past ten, went on to finalize my W- und P-Seminar choice for next year, read a bit, looked at the first page of my Biology stuff, had lunch, played a game of scrabble (I had the lead for a long, long time, and then Sandra got rid of all her 7 tiles and got 50 extra points, so I lost by forty points :/), read some more, tumbled around on tumblr, read some more, had supper, watched the Blackhawks game - it was on TV!!! -, had some frozen yogurt, watched more Blackhawks, watched the shootout in the Oilers-Canucks game - and even though it looked like Vancouver would win, the Edmonton Oilers managed to even with Eberle and so on.
And now I'm realizing that I have only three days to cram as much knowledge for Biology and Japanese into my head, and I might freak out, although I don't feel like it...

Well, just for me, here are the teams I am interested in:

Philadelphia Flyers: 2/2 games lost
Pittsburgh Penguins: 2/2 games won
Edmonton Oilers: 1/1 game won
Carolina Hurricanes: 1/1 game lost
Washington Capitals: 1/1 game lost
Chicago Blackhawks: 2/2 games won (as somebody pointed out so nicely: If you want to raise a banner, make sure you're not playing the Blackhawks that night. Explanation: The Kings yesterday raised their banner for winning the Stanley Cup, and the Coyotes raised their banner for winning their Division, and both of them lost ... it was especially gratifying for the Hawks, because Marián Hossa got a concussion from Coyote Raffi Torres - who was still suspended for it - during the playoffs last year, and the Hawks subsequently lost)

Pretty even, isn't it? (And I'm sorry for the hockey spam... but that's kinda a big deal here right now, and yeah... I really like it.)

Have a good night!

Julia

Samstag, 19. Januar 2013

Bio is Back

So, really good news on this lazy Saturday!
I got my Biology notes back!

Okay, but from the beginning:

I wanted to sleep in, which is why I went to bed at around one o'clock in the morning, but I couldn't. I woke up at eight o'clock, and managed to doze off until about nine, before all sleep was gone. Great start into the weekend. -_-
I had breakfast. And then I read a bit until noon, which was when the Winnipeg Jets against Ottawa Senators game started - HOCKEY IS BACK!! - only to find a lot of pictures and posts about the Blackhawks game (against the L.A. Kings) on tumblr, and when I complained about not getting CNS, which transmits the Blackhawks game, here in Canada to one of the girls on tumblr, and she gave me the link to a streaming website so I did watch the Blackhawks game after all, and even though Kane and Toews weren't technically on a line, they ended up on the ice together when either of them scored. The best one of the game though was Marián Hossa, last year out because of a concussion, with two goals and an assist - a worthy comeback after the terrible hit he got from in the playoffs last year - and Kane and Toews each scored one goal. Kane grabbed the first over all goal in this 2013 season with the assist from Hossa, so the Haters who screamed for a Kane trade because he's clearly no good should just shut up! Sorry. My other teams, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Carolina Hurricanes both lost, unfortunately :(

Well, after hockey, Sandra and I drove to my family's house, and guess what? I found my Biology notes! They were buried under two shoe cartons, and I don't know why I didn't see them, because actually I looked there.

And other than that ... I didn't do much. I was mostly reading and watching the figure skaters on TV.
I didn't like it because their programs seemed so not-smooth, but I guess they were pretty good.

And then they brought a short segment in the news about the SnowBall Classics in Vancouver, which Standard and Latin Dancing Competition, and they had one couple there in the studio. It's an international competition, and they were hoping for the title in the Junior Division, but they were really bad. I mean, half of the Ritmo Couples are at least as good as they were, because their turns were sluggish, their choreography was not good (very few actual chacha steps) and the girl never once even looked at the boy. He at least tried, but she could have been dancing with a mannequin. And her foot work wasn't good. (And that's the reason why you should never watch Dancing with me. I can't stop critiquing the couples...)

And that's it.

I'm right now skyping with my mom, so I'm signing out with this!

Freitag, 18. Januar 2013

Just like home

... Yep, just like home:
I'm sitting in the living room, the TV is on (with Undercover Boss, and I think it's the same as in Germany... :) Well, with Canadian or American [I don't know; didn't pay attention] factories), I have my laptop on my stomach and am reading.

It's quite relaxing, but I'm also missing Bob and Jenna  ... :)
Well, never thought I'd adapt that quickly to having siblings :D
School wasn't bad; the Japanese quiz has been delayed till Monday 'cos the Sensei wasn't happy with the exam, I wrote 50 minutes of Biology (and I don't know how it went, but there were 5 questions where I was more or less guessing; four of them contained stuff we had never talked about, the book never talked about - I'm sure about that, I read the book this morning - and that was no where to be found, but aside from that it wasn't too bad... Note that I am cautious with these predictions, because I still remember how it turned out the last time I said something went well), I proof read my English exam - 961 words, my guess was pretty good... although it was only 878 words yesterday, but I changed and clarified a few things - and did a work booklet on Shawshank Redemption, which is an amazing movie, had a photo shooting for my article about bilingualism, was ten minutes late to Spanish because of it (but Mr M gave me a note, so it was no problem) and watched La Misma Luna in Spanish... Yes, it's just like in Germany :)
But we have one final spurt towards exams left, so that's kinda different...

I haven't really done anything else, so I'm signing out for now!

Donnerstag, 17. Januar 2013

Meltdown


Okay, it's not so urgent anymore, but when I left school today, I felt like I was two minutes away from a meltdown.
Outwards signs? I get really quiet and when I speak, my voice is very controlled and even, almost monotonous. And I tend to speak very ... deliberately, but hardly able to stop.
Happened today after Journalism, when I left the building at 7 o'clock, realizing that nope, I hadn't learnt anything for Biology tomorrow, for the biggest test yet ...
At least I like Neuroscience... but in this sense it is really ironic that I should get my worst result on the topic I like best ... But hey, I can still take one retest, and if this is as anything but an A, I am going to take the test again.

I'm feeling pretty good right now, though, and I have even already started learning!
But I'm pretty good at cramming knowledge into my head. It's not ideal - far from it, actually -, but it's gotta do. Because I don't want to fail that test tomorrow.

Well, actually, I'm pretty relaxed right now. Because I still have that "Joker", that one retest at the end of the year. And since I anyway have to learn for the final, I can learn for the re-test, too, no matter what topic it'll be on.

Only problem? I can't find my study-guide answers. Solution? Answer them again!
I will actually do that, this weekend. I fully intend to, at least.
And I have made a new deal with myself: Every time I go on tumblr instead of studying, or write an e-mail instead of studying, etc. I have to do ten push-ups. By the time finals are over I will have done more than a thousand, I'm pretty sure (alone this evening I have already done 50, so duh.). But at least it's better than me eating frustration chocolate.

I really miss my hostfamily, though. Have I mentioned that? Yesterday probably.
I'm gonna enjoy my time off, though :)

Anything else...? Oh, yeah, we got that Spanish Booklet back that we had to hand in right after the holidays. I have an unbelievable 100% on it, which I don't understand, but I'm not complaining ...

For English we had to write a personal composition (or something like that, I dunno), and I basically wrote something very similar to my feelings post. Once I get that back, I might even type it up, and it's about 900 words (I had one hour of time and I wrote it with hand, but I'm gonna count tomorrow).
The topic was "A person's view of the world may change over time" and I wrote about how my exchange year as achieved exactly that.
At the end, I was almost at the verge of tears, once again not knowing why. I hate that. I really do.

Well, anyway, now I need to get back to learning :)
The re-test is only so much relaxant, I actually want to do well on the test. As I mentioned, I love the topic, and that's exactly what I want to study one day in the future...

And here have a nice picture:
 What's that?, you might wonder.
That is the book storage at amazon.com. Amazing, isn't it?

Mittwoch, 16. Januar 2013

My Mistake...

Okay, first of all, I made a horrible mistake in my blog entry yesterday:
I'm of course staying with Bob and Jenna's grandparents on Tanya's side of the family.
My fault, entirely. I got it mixed up 'cos I think of them as the grandparents due to Bob and Jenna, but wanted to get across that it's on Tanya's side of the family...
Well, one thing at a time, but I fixed it already :)

Okay, today was pretty lame - Mr Derksen was gone (it's his birthday), Mr Kruger let us work on the male reproductive system study guide (which I already completed yesterday), and Spanish and Japanese were only more exercises, so nothing too great.

The Japanese quiz went well, I think, but I won't say anymore - I also thought Biology went really well, and see where that got me!

But I managed to finish my Journalism article, and I guess I'll take another look at Bio before I go to bed. I didn't write the test today, I was so rattled from moving you can't even imagine! I'm taking it on Friday (finally), but at least I am not the last one taking it. (And according to Spencer Mr Kruger likes me asking more questions... ?)

I'm missing my hostfamily, though. I mean, Sandra and Gordo are nice, no question, but I'm kinda missing Bob and Jenna and Tanya and Andy anyway... :/
Well, but I'm gonna enjoy the two weeks on my own anyway! :D

Love y'all,

Julia

Dienstag, 15. Januar 2013

Moving ... again

Yep, I'm moving again.
But only for the next 2 weeks (and a bit), to Tanya's parents, because Tanya, Andy, Jenna and Bob are going to Mexico. As I mentioned, I'm not going - and exam stress in full on.

I am already packed, but even if I forget anything, that wouldn't really matter, because it's maybe a ten minute drive - if even that much.
But I'll only have a ten minute walk to school, so I'm looking forward to sleeping a bit longer!

And talking about exams... I realized that I really don't have to worry. I would pass all my exams with an A if I only got 40 (Spanish & Japanese) or 60 (Biology) percent on the final exam - and I really hope to beat that!
Japanese I worry a bit, because I learnt the wrong vocab for today (I'm re-taking the test tomorrow after school), and I really don't think I can write all the words we learnt, and Biology will be a tiny bit of a hassle, too, because there's just so much and I can't find my Learning outcomes, where I have written up everything (I looked in all my drawers, but I don't know where I put that stuff), but I'm not at all worried about Spanish, 'cos that's my best subject, and English will be alright, too.

I talked to the counselor today, and she will inquire whether I'm eligible for the "Principal's Honor Roll", which is for all students with a GPA (Grade Point Average) of more than 3.7. Last term I had 3.78, but I didn't get a notice, and this term I should have (if I don't screw up my finals and the last few tests we have completely) a GPA of 4.0.

In Journalism I fought my way back up to an A, and Mr M said he was really happy with my writing (he initially told me I had a C+, but he just loves to tease me...)

And again, grades...
As I mentioned, I was feeling weird the last few days, this aching homesickness instead of a punching, just the pull homewards (after a weird dream about flying home... I did mention that, didn't I?)
Well, I woke up today at 4:11 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep, learnt the wrong vocab and a bit of Biology, and so I was already pretty tired again by the time we had English.

I was really rattled by the Biology B, because I had thought it went really great, and we watched Shawshank redemption, and I was really down.
So I told Mr Derksen that I couldn't find the book on amazon, and since he is usually pretty good in cheering me up, I mentioned that that grade had rattled me pretty badly.
And he didn't disappoint, just said: "But I realized you are much more relaxed. And if I were your parent, or your uncle, I would say If one B is what it takes you to relax, take the B." And he kinda sounded like he was proud.
So yeah, after that I felt really great, and then Mr M told me that I had an A so far, so my day was pretty good.

And now I'm just waiting to be picked up by the grandparents, so that's it... I'm not sure whether I can update tomorrow already; it'll depend on how quickly we can set up my wi-fi access :)

And since I'm pretty sure I forgot something really important, I'm gonna look again (and look at Biology, because I have that test at lunch tomorrow, and it's worth 60 marks :o)

Love y'all!

Julia

Montag, 14. Januar 2013

Final Sprint

Yes, the Final Sprint definitely has started.
Today we had a Japanese Practice Quiz (luckily not marked, as I was really, really bad at it - I had learnt the wrong words!) and our last Bio test for this course except for the finals (and the one test I have to re-take because I missed it, and I'm gonna re-take today's quiz at the end of the term, which we can do for one test, because it was pretty bad ... 26/33, dunno where I lost the points - gonna see tomorrow, I guess... although 33 makes no sense, because I remember quite vividly that it was 34 points when I handed it in -_-), tomorrow, there is each a Spanish and a Japanese vocab test and I have to hand in my Biology Journal, of which I had no idea until today that I had to make it (I typed it up already and I just have to print it off tomorrow) and I still have to re-take the mentioned Biology exam and a Japanese vocab test. So, yeah.
Maybe I ask him whether I can substitute the days of the month for the Unit 6 Vocab test? It's about the same amount of words, so ... maybe?
Aaaand then finals start next week. Juhuu.
#nothappy

And since I am still tired and nothing else has transpired today (pretty much, it was just me reading and doing my homework and playing Rummy with Bob), I'm headed towards bed now...

G'night!


Sonntag, 13. Januar 2013

Not quite so productive

... Nope, today wasn't as great as yesterday - I mean, it wasn't bad, although it started out pretty ... well...
I woke up after nine hours of sleep and felt like I'd slept maybe two, so I can't say great...

But I managed to do Biology first thing in the morning, and then I actually started on the practice SAT test, and remember me mentioning that one course? Well, it's a Doctorate, so not an undergraduate program, and do you know how I found that out?
I was browsing the University finder, having clicked on the University of Illinois at Chicago instead of the University of Chicago, and then I realized that it was a different University, but I had gotten curious, so I looked whether they maybe had a similar program. And what does the website say?

University of Illinois at Chicago is the only University in Illinois offering a Neuroscience Major, which is what I want to do, so I researched that a bit, and yes, that was it...

Other than that? Nothing much...
So sorry!
Oh, I did start packing - I'm moving to the grandparents' house, in case I haven't mentioned, because my family is going to Mexico. I'm not going because a) they had already booked, b) it's pretty expensive and c) I can't miss finals - and I don't really wan to miss so much school and leave... so yeah.

Well, good night, guys!

ETA: Okay, there is one more thing which I probably should have mentioned.

I wrote that epically long piece on how I'm feeling, right? Well, it's pretty much shifted completely, and it's all the fault of my stupid, stupid unconscious brain.
I dreamt, a few nights ago already, that I was on the plane back home, and ... it was a very disconcerting feeling once I woke up, because I had been perfectly fine in my dream, and even looking forward to coming home, something I have been trying to avoid very hard.

So, yeah, I'm pretty melancholic right now...
Not even Chelsea Dagger and What makes you beautiful can change that at the moment, and those two usually help :/

Samstag, 12. Januar 2013

Being productive

Yes, hard to believe, but I have actually been more productive today than in the last few weeks...
I mean, I managed to not just reblog stuff in tumblr I like (although I did do that today, too) and read (which I also did; one hundred and nine thousand words of glorious and awesome), but I also did my laundry (folded it, okay), tidied up my room, did my Biology homework (so I only have to write it neatly, but all the answers are assembled; and anyway, that's my way of learning, I just answer again the questions we have to hand in ... does that even count as studying then?), finished my journalism article and started thinking about the next article.

Yes, I could have done more. I could have started on the next article (have to have it finished by Thursday at the very latest, actually Monday would be better, so I'll try to do that tomorrow), I could have gone through my blog for all the important entries I keep talking about in the link above, I could have written more of my story and I'm supposed to beta six chapters for a friend... But tomorrow is a day, too, and I'm not staying up too late today, so duh. Deal with it.

And since I don't have anything better to do:
Have some links I collected over the last few days on tumblr! :)
You might like them.

Okay, this is not actually from tumblr but rather from Dorothea, but enjoy anyway... It's a bit sad, though... And talking about Doro: Today in West Kelowna she said it was -17°C! MINUS SEVENTEEN DEGREES!!! Can you even believe it? I can't! Here a post about the rights everybody has - very interesting, and stuff I at least sometimes forget, like
  • You have a right not to justify yourself to others.
  • You have a right not to take responsibility for someone else’s problem.
  • You have a right, sometimes, to inconvenience or disappoint others.
Pretty great post, if you ask me.
With the deadpan response underneath the post on tumblr:
I present to you: Canada ---- … is this not commonplace in other countries? Weird o_O
Things parents forget to tell their children - also a really amazing post - read it! And then this post: What would be hardest to explain to somebody from the fifties? The answer ... if you think about it like that, yes, we are crazy!
eleven used to be all bouncy and cute and adorable and now he’s becoming more and more broken and dark like nine and ten were towards their ends and that makes me nervous
I knew immediately what she was talking about, but I think the poster below nailed it: Second poster: take a minute to imagine how bizzarre this post sounds to other people Third poster:    icant                             
it just sounds like you’re really emotional about math imdone
Fourth poster: i just really love math guys


You might wonder what this is about... Well, the Doctor in Doctor Who is called just "The Doctor, so in order to refer to the different reincarnations (the actor changes every time the Doctor dies), you refer to the number of the actor playing him.
So, Nine is the ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston, Ten is the tenth Doctor played by David Tennant and Eleven is the current Doctor, Matt Smith.
And they all... their personality changed over the course of the show, so I guess the concern is valid.
But just thinking about how it must sound to not-fandom-insiders... :D

And one more thing:
this
It says:

Fan: I want to be an author when I grow up. Am I insane?
Neil Gaiman: Yes. Growing up is highly overrated.
Just be an author.

And I guess we're headed for a new monthly-view record:
We already have more than half as many as in the month with the most clicks!
Okay, have a good night!

Rockets Friday

Okay, today was pretty good - I got my grade from Spanish back, for my presentation I got 40/40, with very little effort, in Japanese I got 14/14 with moderate effort, in Biology I had left my notes at home and just ended up reading and in English I ... guess what, ended up reading!
No, seriously, I had handed my essay in the day before, so I was "good to go" and simply read, as the rest of the class (except for a very few others, but I had really thought we had to hand it in yesterday!) was still working on the essays... and then we started watching Sharkshank, a movie based on a Steven King novel which I will be apparently reading - Mr Derksen recommended it to me, and we ended up talking about narrative perspectives, literary devices (how much artistic license can you take with a "non-fictionous" text?), his book and a few other things, and I really love such conversations, because they make me think, they make me re-evaluate what I thought, and that is the best thing ever.

I didn't do much else - I played Rummy and then I went to see the Rockets.
And that was pretty awesome - I mean, they were really bad, at the beginning, and the Tri-City guys were definitely hotter than the Rockets (seriously, we had a pretty good view from the third row), and they got the lead with 2-nothing, but then Kelowna caught their bearings and defeated them 6-3.
And in the first period it seemed like a pretty tame game, not a single penalty, only to have 5 minutes for fighting and twice 2 minutes for slashing and roughing respectively at the same time and I think another 2 minute penalty and a game misconduct for one of the guys, and in the third period two guys got to it at center ice and ended up getting 5 for fighting each, looking absolutely not remorseful, and one Rocket got 2 minuted because he went flying over a Tri-City's back (seriously, he left the ground and just ... flew) and one of the Rockets took up speed, aiming to check one of the Tri-Citys into the boards, but the guy evaded him and he basically checked himself into it, lying on the ground before limping off - I think he caught an edge and slammed into the boards.

And one of the Tri-City players ... I don't know what exactly happened, I think there was a fight over the puck or something like this, but he was lying on the ground on the other side of the rink, and while the game continued he didn't move except for his arms, so the game was stopped and everybody went dead silent and we just watched as the Trainer pr medical person or whatever skated onto the ice and talked to him, and then he sat up and finally stood up, skating to the bench (and it looked better than the Kelowna guy, who couldn't put any weight on his left food), and everybody started clapping and I thought that was really awesome, because it was a visitor, but everybody seemed genuinely happy that he was back on his feet...
And one of the Tri-City guys was named second star of the game (an honor for the best player) and everybody cheered for him just as much as for the third star, Kelowna's goalie (who attends my school, I think).

Yes, and that was it. The game picked up speed towards the end, and during the first intermission, the pee-wees, or however the first age group is called, played on the ice, and it was seriously cute and everybody cheered for them, too.

And we sung the American and Canadian National Anthems, because Tri-City Americans are from... make an educated guess: The US! And national Anthems are taken very seriously here.

I'm going to bed now!

Donnerstag, 10. Januar 2013

Tired Thursday

Since I am almost sixteen (three months left, so duh), I still don't know when to go to bed.
As a result I'm really tired.
Which is why I'm foregoing doing Biology and opting to go to bed right away. Today I'm really going!
I might have infected a friend with fanfiction. My bad, I'm so sorry (I told him all about it during Biology, and he stole my kindle and started reading, so I'm counting that as a win!).
School wasn't bad, in Spanish we started our final chapter, in Japanese we started out final chapter (and we're having a vocab test tomorrow!), in English I finished my second essay (it's not a masterpiece, but I knew I couldn't get better) and in Biology... we finished dissecting our pigs!
It was really gross and fascinating and revolting and awesome and I almost puked (I didn't but, it did smell horrible, the mixture of Febreeze, preservative and latex), so have some pictures! (They are under the cut, but let me tell you, they're awesome!)
But they might be somewhat revolting...
So here have some school pictures first! (because I'm pretty sure not everybody will finish this post)
One of the hallway, leading towards the gym (the gym is through the left wall, basically, but you can access it after the fire doors)


And luckily we're not in Germany - they're talking
about the gym, not the whole school.
But I anyway had to laugh the first time
I saw it! :)

















So, I have a Japanese test tomorrow, a Spanish test on Monday, our regular Biology test on Monday, my Biology test I missed on Wednesday, and then the week after that, final start!
And since in the last week of January, the Provincial exams are taking place and I'm taking none, I won't even have to come to school!
So I'll probably be meeting up with Doro, who will be a single ball of nerves since she's leaving ;(
But it will be great to see her again!

Tomorrow I'm going to see the Rockets, and I'm saying good night with that!
And the pictures are under the cut!

Mittwoch, 9. Januar 2013

Weird World

Yes, definitely a weird world. I experience German-English-blindness more often this evening than ever before. Reading an article, I wasn't sure whether it was German or English - it was German, as I realized - and that's happened not the first time. I mean, I have it periodically, but I was reading a few newspapers online, and it got really confusing. Online is worse than kindle, because I haven't read anything German on my kindle. Ever.

So, today was pretty okay, except for how I almost missed my bus.
I mean, I had put my alarm clock on for 7.35 a.m. instead of 7.10 a.m. (I don't know how exactly I spend 1.5 hours every morning, but I definitely don't need that much time), only to have Tanya wake me up at 7.15 or so - I had kind of expected that, because she wouldn't let me oversleep, so I woke up slightly, called out "Alarm clock goes off at 7:30" and went back to sleep for another few precious minutes.
But then I was ready to go to early, and I just sat on the stairs, reading, and lost track of time. So by the time I left the house, the bus was right in front of our house.
I sprinted down the street and across the red light before it had fully turned white (the 'you can walk' is white and the 'stop' is read for pedestrians) and caught it just so. I'm just glad you don't have to wait long for red lights to turn white for crossing the street ;)
But I did catch it, even though I think it wasn't the best thing for my knee. :/

I finally held my Spanish presentation - and usually when I have to hold a presentation, I black out, especially if it's in English. In German it's alright, but in English I remember starting and then the end, but not what I said in between those periods. My sources have told me that I usually speak waaay too fast, but well, as I mentioned, I don't really remember much.
It was different today, though, and I am really happy about that. I believe this shows me that yes, I am growing in my year here. Not that I'm doubting it exactly, but whatever.

In English we continued writing our mock provincials, and I hit a writing gold mine. And then I had to stop because the lesson was over :/ *unimpressed*

Okay, and please read this, even though it is (slightly) about hockey.
The media today is abuzz with the news that Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke was fired. The thing is, the Leafs are really bad. I mean, even their fans don't really believe in their success anymore.
But firing Burke 10 days before the season starts might not have been the best choice - the media will focus on that, and a few players know that they played a role in this turn of events. Which is decidedly not good for a team that's anyway not good.

Anyway, what I actually wanted to write about is this tweet and the picture, because I think, and there I agree with Patrick, Brian's son, this is one of the most important things Brian has done.

  Source: (x)
 What this picture is about:
Brian lost his son Brendan in 2010 in a car accident. Brendan was a strong advocate to end locker room homophobia after he came out in 2009. He was the person most closely related to the NHL through his father GM for the Maple Leafs and his brother Patrick, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers to come out as gay. (As of today, no athlete, neither former not active, has come out, although there have been anonymous interviews about how hard it is)

Patrick and Brian founded the 'You Can Play' campaign in his memory, which has the central slogan of If you can play, you can play, and various high-profile players, mostly hockey but also other sports, tell them to the camera, along with something like "I will always stand up for a teammate, no matter their sexuality" or "If a guy can help us win, then I want him on my team".
The thing that YCP wants to do is take away the edge of being the "first guy", first by showing support from straight athletes, and then bu having a group of players come out together. In 2005, one moderator (I don't know who, though) said he knew of enough players, coaches and commentators who were gay to fill two full all-star teams (and I'm guessing he was not talking about the All-Star game, although I can't be too sure...), which makes it at least 10 players and two coaches. Might not sound like much, but for a league so homophobic and without a single guy out of the closet, this is a lot - if you remember that this is a moderator we're talking about, and there sure are more guys, since I doubt that everybody would share such a thing with a moderator.
But You Can Play is keeping the videos up, and I anticipate in the long run, it will do a good job.
And yes, I think if this is what Brian Burke will be remembered for, he can be definitely be proud.


So, and talking about equality and stuff like that, look what I found on tumblr:

And I know a few people who should read this very carefully. And everybody should keep it in mind, for sure. Because it's just so true.





























And that was my "Wort zum Sonntag" (word of the day) even though it's still Wednesday...
And one last bit of trivia:
Why this ♥ is called a heart.
Well, I'm off writing a Journalism article about the end of the lockout - I totally forgot about that, I'm just really lucky that I know so much about the lockout that I don't have to research anything. (And want to read about how messy Tyler Seguin was in Switzerland? German article here and English article - with a healthy dose of sarcasm like "I hear that. I didn't learn to put rotten bananas in the garbage until apartment three. (I originally thought they went in the dryer.)" by the author here. But it seems as though not everything is true... Seguin denies the dryer incident but leaves everything else uncommented :D)

Love y'all!
Julia

Dienstag, 8. Januar 2013

123

First of all: Skip my introduction. I welcome you to read it, but if you want to go straight to my post, click this.

Today is, for those interested, in fact my 123rd post on this blog!
It's an awesome number, although I do hope to crack the 234, which is even more awesome. Why? Well, for one it's my birthdate, April 23rd, and two it's two prime numbers (2, 3) and the square of the first number, and both square numbers and prime numbers are something really beautiful.

Anyway...

You might have noticed, but I'm kind of remodeling my blog with a "Welcome Site", although Blogger doesn't let you do it per se, so I have to circumvent it with this little box up there.

Other changes?
Well, the labels can be found in a list at the side in alphabetical order, I have a page view statistics thing, the "About Me" page is totally new (and still being reworked, so have patience with me. I'm trying to compile a list with the post I imagine will be most read - my farewell book, my Vancouver trip with the multitude of pictures, my Christmas post, the feeling stuff), and I'm trying out a few new things.

I'm also trying to decide whether to stop posting once my exchange year is settled, or if I should continue; I guess I'll make it dependent whether or not I'll be taken by the University I have on top of my wishlist - or rather whether I'll be going abroad for my studies. If yes, I might keep posting, I'm guessing there are a few folks out there interested in studying abroad; or I might leave this blog as it is and make a new one so that future exchange students can find this here and ... not things muddled by a student.

I definitely will keep posting though, because I believe it's really great, for me at least, even if it's only me rambling. But it gives my day structure :).

Okay, about today.

Montag, 7. Januar 2013

Drowning in Snow

Yes, we are.
I left the house without a toque (for those wondering, that is a toque:
(c) first and foremost to toewslake.tumblr.com,
and second to Jonathan Toews, who is in this shot :)
#NHLisback!
I think the rest of the world says hat, but we say toque here, and hat is more that thing with brims) because it was only -1 out there, and by the time I was at the bus stop (literally 45 seconds later since I didn't have to wait at the red light to cross the street) I had half an inch of snow on my head ... okay, maybe half a centimeter to a centimeter, but still.
And since Canadians apparently don't believe in clearing their streets of snow (I know I said I wouldn't compare, but heck, that's really hard here) but rather have the snow accumulate and form a thick layer, our bus was late. I don't know how late exactly, but usually we get to the school by 8:45, and today it was at least, at the very least, 9:05 - school starts at 9 a.m. sharp, and warning bell goes off five minutes before that. Nobody was surprised, though.

School was ... not bad.
We were in the library in Spanish, working on our projects, although I was more spamming Jade about the end of the lockout (my bad, I'm not even sorry), so now I'm still not finished with Spanish - it's gonna be a long night, but I love working late nights, so duh. I can still sleep tomorrow!

In Japanese we learnt the days of the week, and we'll have a quiz on that first thing tomorrow.
Biology was ... well, we had a substitute, so no test for me or Kristen, but I actually wanted to ask Mr Kruger a few things... before I can write the test, obviously. I didn't understand one of the questions, and duh.
English... well, we're still kinda analyzing poems and stories, and he reminded us that we have two and a half weeks left till finals. And it's just ... two and a half weeks. That's like nothing. And we will be writing a mock-provincial exam, a twelfth grade exam, that will count as our big exam - 20% of our final mark. :o

Yeah, and that was it ... Nothing else happened. So I'll go back to avoiding doing Spanish! :)
But I really need to get that done, no joking, and I should write my Journalism paper, too ... I'm glad I hadn't started writing, because I'm covering the lockout, and it's over now, so good for me! :)

Love you all and take care!

Sonntag, 6. Januar 2013

Last day of holidays

Hi there!

I'm really freakishly tired, but also really freakishly happy, and yeah...
Okay, first things first: You might have noticed, but there is now a new tab at the very top, right next to my "About Me" (which is still in German if I'm not wrong. Sorry about that). It's called "My Feels" and clicking it will lead you to all my post tagged Feelings or Feels, and I will be posting about how I'm feeling (of course, what else), about how time flies and how I experience the passage of time. By clicking that tab, you can find all my feely posts in one place, and I might just go though all my older posts and see what I said there about how I feel. Yeah. Check back there to see how I am maturing (haha) over time.

So, my day... was kind of hazy.
It started out, believe it or not, a short while before I posted my last post about my feelings. Since I'm not always sure how much is too much in the online world, I had my parents check the entry on whether or not I could publish it (I didn't change anything, it was fully approved), and by the time I posted it, it must have been two thirty or so.
By that time I also was already chatting with a class-mate from one of my extra-curriculars back home, and we ended up writing on facebook until about half past four (seriously), and then I wanted to wait for my parents to Skype, because there were a few things I needed to get off my chest, things I can't discuss on my blog because that would be rude, and so I stayed up and wrote some more. I am so creative in the last time, I don't know what's happened! Maybe it is the sleep thing :D
So, okay, by the time I got my Mom on Skype, it was already a quarter to five. I was just about to go to bed, actually, because hello, quarter to five? but then she did appear, and we skyped for two hours. During that time, my dad appeared, helped me fix my laptop problem (it was firefox taking up too much Arbeitsspeicher, sorry, don't know the English word) and well...

At around six I cleared all my cookies and everything, resulting in me being logged out of all of my social media sites, so I log back into twitter, and I recently started following a bunch of hockey players (who's surprised? I bet nobody), and I was just glancing over the tweets, when one particular caught my eye. It said

@88PKane @tylerseguin92 [two Hockey players from the NHL for Biel; Kane is one of my absolute favourites] Had a great time on and off the ice with u guys in Biel.I wish u good luck on the upcoming year,we will be watching

And I was like: What the heck? I mean, Seguin's contract ran out shortly before Christmas, and he'd already returned to Boston, but Kane was signed with Biel until the lockout ended ... only possible solution: The lockout is over!

And sure enough, looking over my twitter dash, it quickly became apparent that yes, the NHL and NHLPA had indeed reached a tentative agreement sometime around 5 a.m. New York time, after 16 (!) hours of negotiations, and the season will start on the 15th if everything goes well or on the 19th if not.

And it was just so amazing, my parents had to listen to me squeal... And then I texted Andy at ten past six, waking him up (I hadn't known he had is phone on loud!), but he said he didn't mind - the lockout's over and TSN has been bringing news about that all day.
So I wrapped Skype, squealed a bit more, and then went to watch TSN.

Yep, and if you wonder where sleep was, it's here: 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. It's why I'm tired, but just the fact that the lockout is over was enough to keep me going all day.

I was even semi-productive in regards to schoolwork, but right now instead of compiling the itinerary for the USA trip for my Spanish project, what am I doing?
Writing The-Lockout-Is-Over-Stories. Wow. Did I mention I was really creative? It's been ages since the words flowed like they did today, and I find myself really reluctant to stop right now...

Well, have a great first school day, guys,
Love you all,

Julia

'Cause I'm halfway gone

... Okay, I'm not, but that's kind of what came to mind thinking about what to name this entry.
The line is from Lifehouse, "Halfway Gone".
And looking at Dorothea's day-count, it's a bit scary (be warned that there is a lot of feeeeeels under the cut, and a fair bit of me psycho-analyzing myself, so enter at your own risk)

Procrastination

Remember how I told you about the ton of work I had?
Well... those who know me (maybe) can guess how much I have done by to day:
Not even half of my work!
I know, I know, bad example, bad work attitude, blah, blah, but ... I started with Biology, got it almost done, and then ... couldn't do the rest.

It isn't just that I was procrastinating (which I was, I won't even deny it), but it's that my laptop didn't work. It's really weird at the moment, it just keeps freezing, for like two minutes whenever I click a link, and since I need to do a lot of research for my Spanish project, I had a lot of frozen time where my laptop simply would not react.
So I grabbed a book and ... got distracted, of course.

Well, I am resigning myself to do (as so often) everything on the last day possible. And I still have a few days before my presentation, but I am telling myself I need it by Monday. The likelyhood of me actually getting it done increases like ten-fold.

So, now for my holidays:
They were relaxing. I caught up to a lot of my sleep, although that was kind of interrupted two nights ago:
I have a major writer's block since leaving Germany. At one of my stories I am at a point where I don't know what to write next, and I simply didn't get any inspiration. Over the last few days, there was a page lying next to me, and I randomly jotted down a few lines (more often than not only one or two sentences).
But then on Thursday evening, I'm getting ready for bed at 8.30 (I was tired), when I am hit by inspiration. I was reading something, and my mind took the scenario, twisted it, and gave me about a lines DinA4 page of actual writing. Then I went on to get into bed, but I'm just starting to drift off, when more in the same setting occurs to me, so I get up and write that down, too.

So I get back to bed, but even though I am really tired, I can't fall asleep, and another burst of inspiration hits me. I don't even try to fight it, just get up and write, and ... well, see for yourself, I have four pages written like this:

It's a 20 ct piece so that you can imagine how big the page is, and I have written on it in my custom way to save paper:
going downwards on the line, then flipping the page so that the writing is upside down and then I write in the space between the writing again.

So, back and front of two sheets, and since I write on it twice, I guess I can say I have written 8 pages. Add to that the four pages I have written with single lines, and you get a pretty impressive word count (I have typed up the first two pages now and am at about 800 words. Looks good).
The best thing about this is that I also almost have an ending, or if I change it a bit, I have at least my ending planned.
Why can't I devote that much time to Journalism?
Well, the downside however was, that it was 2 o'clock by the time I was finished; I wrote for about two hours, maybe two and a half, and I had a cramp in my neck and in my hand, like always when I write too much and am too focused.
But I'm pretty proud.

What I'm also proud about is that I have been playing Rummy with Bob (and occasionally Jenna and Andy and on once Tanya, too) every day, and ... see, Mama, you can't complain. I am socialising (somewhat)!

So, there might be another post coming up, because ... if you look at Dorothea's day count you might know why, but I'll leave it at this for the moment.

See you all soon!

And by the way:
I mentioned Germany had been beaten by the US 8-nothing and by Canada 9-3, yes?
USA went on to beat Canada 5-1 (to the chagrin and outrage of the Canadians), and then won the World Junior Hockey Championship, while Canada only came 4th after a shootout against Russia, I think (they are tied, so they shoot on the goal without any defensemen).

But now good night (or good morning, depending on where in the world you are and when you're reading this)